A link to my resume and news about my life (such as it is). Pictures have moved to the Pictures section.

Yegods I've let this sit for entirely too long. It makes me wonder if I should backtrack and fill in the gaps, if only so I remember what the hell I did and when. Is that cheating?
Last week, I spent an entire week drinking and skiing. And skiing and Drinking. And often both simultaneously. A fantastic week in Les Gets with a bunch of Sarah's sisters friends. I took plenty of pictures, of course.

If you can read this, it means I haven't taken the time to fill in this blank space yet. Plenty happened Between September and March, really. I have pictures to prove it. When I use this thing regularly, it works rather well to remind me when I did what, and family/friends enjoy reading it to see what I'm up to. Doesn't work so well if you don't use it though, eh? *POKE* *NUDGE* Come on, Glenn, get yer act together.

I don't think I've ever let pictures sit around for as long as I have this time. In getting ready to post pictures from the christening and go-cart trip, I noticed I haven't even put up pictures from my birthday party in June. Gone are the days when I'd stay up after a paty to post the pictures so that they'd be there the next day, I think. Except in emergencies like weddings and births, of course.

GIA go-cart grand prix was yesterday. It's a lot harder than it looks, and I don't think I've sweat so much in a while. They put you in air-tight polyester jumpsuits, and having a helmet on doesn't help. All of us were drenched in sweat afterwards. I came in second though. Got a trophy and everything. Woo-hoo! I think I did something to my ribs though, as I can't bend my torso. Maybe it was from when I hit the wall on that side going about 25 mph. Maybe.

Frank and Katie christened Alice today. I was up far too late the night before, and woke up at 12:15 for a christening that started at 12:30. Depsite having to shower and find clothes suitable for a church, I still made it by 12:40, in time to take some photos. But my zoom button was broken, so they're not as good as I would like them to be. I'm starting ot get picky with the picture quality thing.

Jesus, what a great vacation. I played golf four times with the family, got a great tan and bought a new set of golf clubs. Then, I went out to a Baseball game. Three days later, I get back home. In the meantime, three straight days of constant activity. I think there was some sleep in there somewhere, but it was more like passing out. The day the ball-game and post-game partying, we got up at 8am to drive to eastern washington to go to a Ash-Blue Man Group-Busta Rhymes-David Bowie-Moby concert at the Gorge in George. If it sounds good, it was better. Then, a couple minutes sleep, and back to Seattle to crash the amazon.com company picnic. Thought I guess it's not really crashing if you're inviited by employees. But I still got a free t-shirt. Not to mention the free beer and food.
These sorts of things make one think about moving back. Of course, it's not like that all the time, and getting a job comparable to the one in Geneva wouldbe well nigh impossible, but still. Hella fun.

Off to Seattle to go to Tom's Wedding reception (months after the weding itself) and to see the family and old friends. Boy do I need a vacation.

Yesterday was the yearly (GIA) Geneva Irish association barbecue. Standard barbecue with lots of drinking and meat eating. We also played football (SOCCER!), and you've never seen such a wheezing, sweating, swearing group of non-athletes in your life. It was a load of fun though, if a bit embarassing. I got called for the only offical foul of the game when I sorta forgot that you're not allowed to go through opponents to get to the ball, no matter if they are 2 feet shorter than you.

I went to Mike's (Kopa...Popolapol...umm. He's greek.) birthday party last night/this morning. I got invited by Sarah, who thought I'd know him, but I didn't. Ah well, it was a great party. He has a house out in France, and it has a dedicated dance room in the basement, complete with mixing board for DJing. At about 3:30 or so, the host ran out of new CDs that people wanted to hear, so I got mine out of the car and started pumpin' out the tunes. Ok, mostly I just chose songs that seemed right, and mostly screwed up using the overly complex (two switches and two sliders) mixing board, but it kept people dancing 'til 7am or so. My right ear is still ringing from cranking up the earphones to try to pick the next song while the previous one is playing. I think I know why DJs make playlists now.

Went to the Montreux Jazz Festival last night to see Bush in concert. They were pretty damn good, I must say. The crowd was suitably rowdy, what with moshing and all, but it was the most civilized, polite moshing I've ever seen. (Jump, jump, bump, 'oh, sorry', jump, jump, whack, 'you ok?'). At least it was until someonw hit me from behind and knocked my glasses off. After scrambling around on the floor getting my hands stepped on for abit, someone found them and handed them back. (thanks!). Only afterwards was I told that I had actually been hit in the head when Gavin Rossdale stage-dived when I wasn't looking. I need a video of the concert so I can see my stupid self getting whacked.

The macstravic.com server got hit by lightning, so if you noticed a few hiccups in the service, or malfunctioning links, that's the reason. Excuses, excuses. I don't care about acts of God, man, my web site must go on!

I'm going to start making an effort to update this page a bit, as a few people have told me they actually _read_ it back when I updated it every (or nearly every) week. I don't think I'll bother listing everything that has happened in the last year, but rather start from here.

The trouble with having an 'about' page is that if you occasionaly don't feel like updating it, the entires end precipitously, and it looks like you dided or something. Which I haven't. I'm still here, plugging along, but have been working around 10-12 hours a day for the last month solid, and am not entirely in the mood to write here. whoopee.

Now I remember why I never take vacations. My god, do I hate coming back. It's taken me until now to regain some sort of ability to think about work, and I still seem to mostly want to sit around and relax all day. I think I need to take a six month vacation or something. Maybe I only feel ike I'm back when I've managed to post the pictures from the trip. Which I have.

Just got back from 10 days in Ireland. I want to go back already. Everyone was extremely friendly. Most of my plans fell through, but I did end up getting to meet everyone I wanted to. I think I'll fill this out more when my brain has recovered from all that Guinness.

The Lake Parade and the begining of the fete de Geneve was this weekend. I managed to miss the parade itself, though. I threw out my back bending over to pick up some garbage in my apartment (I knew there was a good reason to be a slob) and had to lie down for an hour. By the time I got up and got dressed, it was 6, and the parade had reached the other side of the lake. dammit.
On the bright side, I met and spent the day with a very nice Hungarian woman. We wandered around the party (500,000 people showed up) until I had to take her back to her hotel at 8 in the morning. And now she's gone forever. I gave her this address, so maybe she's out there. Hello?! Nope, damn, no response. I seem to be doing very well with meeting very nice women who proceed to leave the country with all due speed. *sigh*

Went to the Montreux Jazz Festival to see David Gray in concert last night. He was fantastic. He has great songs, and the performance was really solid. And his drummer is certifiably insane. If he were a little hairier, he would be Animal from the Muppet Show.

A cautionary tale: When the elevator says 'Limit 320kg', they MEAN it. I got stuck in an elevator last night at 5am with 7 people, two beers, pizza, and a dog. No emergency number posted. No elevator phone. No escape hatch. No way to force the door. We were in there for an hour before we could convince the fire department to come rescue us. Thank god for cell phones, or I'd still be in there. Only after escaping, calming down, and having a few more drinks did I realize it was Friday the 13th!

A friends of mine from Charly O'Neil's had his going away party today. He's moving to Jamaica, the poor guy. There was great food, entirely too much to drink, and I ended up with 3 people passed out on my various couches after crawling home at 5:30 on a mission to watch Crouching tiger Hidden dragon. The things you do late at night when there's alcohol involved.

Went to the July fourth display in Geneva,m and got caught in the worst rainstorm I've ever seen. It only lasted 20 minutes, but lightning set off half of the fireworks prematurely (cool!) and there was about 3 inches of standing water oin the ground afterwards. The good news is me and my friends managed to find some cover before getting soaked to the bone.

I'm 30. Argh. It's a bit strange having entered a new decade. Had a great party on Friday that lasted until 6 in the morning, with nary a complaint from the neighbors. Pictures are up on the pictures page.

Finally met one of my neighbors over the weekend. It was his birthday, and he politely invited all the neighbors. I showed up only to tell them I was heading out, and they could be as noisy as they like, but he invited me in. We talked a bit, and it turns out, he came to Geneva on Jan 31, 1999. So did I. He started work on Feb 1, 1999. So did I. He lived in the Citadines in fErney for two months while looking for an apartment. So did I. He's worked in the same building as me for the past 2.5 years, he has the apartment below me, and this was the first time we've met. He also has the same dining room set and light fixtures as me. Somewhat freaky.

Single again. Life sometimes goes in cycles, and mine's in a bit of a dip at the moment. I'm sure everything will get better in time. At least that's what I keep telling the dancing aardvarks that live in my head.

Just bought myself an iPaq. I've been fiddling with it getting it set up just the way I want pretty much every second fo the day I'm not working. Much more powerful than a Palm, and it'll be half my GPS system once I get the antenna/etc. installed in my car. Now if I just get a DVD player, I'll have all the toys! I win! woo-hoo!

Pictures from St. Patrick's Day, Jenny's Birthday, the Geneva Auto show and several other occasions are waiting for me to get off my lazy ass and put them up. Should be soon. :/

I got my new car! Woo-hoo! I had to wait about two months, but I got just what I wanted: A black Limited edition PT cruiser. I fully plan on driving it all around and taking pictures of it in scenic locations, so I'll probably have a load of pictures up soon.

the Patent of the Week site is now open! Featuring brand new design, streamlined interface, and brand new content. I've been completely exhausted by programming for work, so I needed to do something fun, hence the new web site.

Not single any more. Well, not really. Arrrrgh. Life is frustrating and confusing sometimes, but I suppose there are worse problems one could have.

Blargh. Single again. 'Nuff said.

Just found out my parents put our dog to sleep last week. The poor guy was over 16 years old, and couldn't hear or see any more. When I was home for Xmas, he pretty much just wandered around in a circle and got a bit confused if anyone got in his way. All day, circling, circling the fireplace. It's a long way from when he was a puppy and we put him in a christmas stocking. He got an eye infection in the eye he had some very limited light sense in, and that was the final straw. Bye, Wikket.

Incredibly, horrendously busy this week. Been working until 9 or ten, then waiting for my GF to get off work at midnight, then going out and doing things with her, then trying to get some sleep in there somewhere. I'm exhausted.

Well, I have a valentine now, if only a day late. Well, at least I got her phone number and a somewhat tentative agreement to meet for a drink sometime at a to-be-determined time. Better than I normally do.

Happy Valentine's Day! Another year with no Valentine. *sniff* Ah, well.
My radio apperance went great (I was on for forty minutes this time). I am relying on Rodney to digitize the tape, so I'm not holding my breath. He can be disorganized sometimes. :)

Just got notified that I will be on the radio again this Sunday, Feb 11, at 11am. This time around, I'm going to talk about frivolous lawsuits or stupid criminals (not positive which yet), and, of course, patents. Rodney has promised to put the smack down on the engineer who hasn't made a tape of my last appearance yet. Hopefully the engineer will survive the encounter, and I'll put the tape up as soon as I get it.

Got another award today:. I'll have to start another section soon. Lesse how many I can get if I keep submitting to these sites.

Got my first website award today:. Woo! Ok, not that exciting, but given that I hardly appear on search engines, the more recognition the merrier. :)

I bought a new car on Monday. I'm not letting people know what it is until I take delivery of the new one, though. I don't want to hear people's opinions or misgivings or whatever until they actually see the car. It's got four doors, four door, and it's black. That's all I'm lettin' people know. But I got the car loan, and I will be selling my beetle in the next month or so. It has served me well, but it's time to trade 'er in.

My radio appearance on the 14th went great! Much better than the second time, which wasn't bad in itself, I don't think, but think I was more comfortable with the subject matter this time. Didn't feel like I had to rush through anything, or try to stretch it. I am still waiting for Rodney to send me the tape so I can digitize it, but I did get a good copy of december's appearance up, on the new sounds page.

Pictures from Christmas, Tim's Bachelor Party and Tim & Terri's wedding should be up in the pictures section. Some of the Paddy's Xmas party pictures have been editted, re-touched, and otherwise improved as well. Sound files from my radio appearance digitized really badly, so I'm going to re-record them in the next few days.

Happy Birthday, Swantje! Sucks to be 25, eh?

Made it back to Geneva, finally. They lost my bag, again. The strange bit is, I checked two bags, and they only lost one. The same one they lost on the trip over. Bad baggage karma, I think.
Anyways, Tim & Terri's Wedding was great. I ushed (for the third time this year), and saw a bunch of people in N.C. I had never met before. Tim & Terri's wedding reception stretched on into a New Year's Party, which cut off around 2-ish. Very ish, as there was a lot of alcohol involved. Any party with a keg of Guinness, and I'm going to kill a large portion of it.
I stayed with Tom & Lydia (Thanks Tom!) for my time in N.C., which saved me loads of cash, and helped make the visit more fun. Not to mention I got to see Iron Monkey & hopping vampires. I saw Kelley for the first time in 5 years, and tried to do a little fence-mending. Not sure how it came off...I think she might be happy with the fence the way it is. :)
As always, going back to the states was an interesting experience. Get me in person, and I'll probably talk yer ear off.

Merry Christmas! I've had a great holiday so far. The whole family went dogsledding in the rockies last week, my sister, brother-in-law and I went skiing, and my father and brother and I played golf. Golf in winter? Yup. It's interesting playing when the greens are frozen solid. Next stop: Tim and Terri's wedding.

The Paddy's Christmas party was this Sunday, and it went fantastically. Pretty much everyone was there (about 50 people), and Patrick and Doudo even showed up with young Sean. David opened the pub on Sunday especially for the party, and we enjoyed fantastic food, wine and company. Pictures are up in the pictures section.

We've added yet another member to the Paddy's crowd, this time thanks to Patrick and Doudo McCormick. They had a son, Sean Michael McCormick, this weekend. Not quite sure of all the details, but mother and baby are both happy and doing well. Patrick was last seen heading for the border with his golf clubs (just kidding). Congratulations!

I was on the radio again this Sunday. I am going to be a monthly feature. Whether that says something about my radio ability, or how little it takes to get on the radio in Geneva, I'm not quite sure. I talked about Darwin Arwards, Urban Legends, and (of course) patents. It went over pretty well, but I wasn't quite as happy with it as I was with my last appearance, mostly because I wasn't quite as comfortable talking about darwin awards and urban legends as I am about patents. The recording will be posted as soon as I get around to digitizing it.

Tim's here this week. We're going to code and code and code and code until we can't code no more. I'm paying him to be here, so it's not all Guinness and late nights. Well, a little bit. Ok, a lot, but we're still gonna work, dammit.

Ever had someone throw up in the back seat of your car? 'Nuff said. The good part is I don't have to give people lifts as much any more, as no one wants to get anywhere near my car. :)

I'd say happy thanksgiving, but they don't really do anything for it over here. I didn't even have any turkey. I feel almost sacrilegious for not having stuffed myself with food until I fell asleep watching football. Ah well.

Still no president. Hrmph. Please note the appropriateness of today's patent.
Speaking of delays, Tim was supposed to be here to do some work for me, but the whole contract situation is FUBAR. If you see me, don't bring it up, as I'll either a) bite your head off or b) talk your ear off. Either way, you lose some vital equipment. With any luck, the bureacracy gods will smile upon me, and he'll be here next week. We'll see.

Stayed up until 4 am watching the election returns coming in last night. And we still don't know who won. argh. I'm keeping my fingres crossed for Gore, but I think it's going to come down to the courts eventuall, unfortunately. Other than that, I have a girlfriend now. Finally. Very, very nice girl. She shows up in a few of the halloween photos if you look real close. It'll probably be a bit more obvious after I post Helen's birthday pictures. :)
Oh, and I got blonde highlights put in my hair. I think it looks damn cool, but your mileage may vary. I'm sure there'll be pictures from something or other up pretty soon.

Helen's birthday was today. We celebrated on Saturday by going to the Loft cabaret. What a great place. Good food, great show and a whole lotta wine. I took pictures until they came over and told me I wasn't allowed to. Feh. I took a load at Therese's birthday in the Loft, and they didn't complain. Oh well, I got a few nice ones, anyway.

Happy Halloween! I went as the devil. Painted face, horns, etc. I just wore Guinness accessories, as I figured that 1) The devil probably drinks Guinness. 2) I didn't have a cape or anything. Anyways, it was a great night, and I took quite a few photos, which are on the pictures page, as always.

I just finished installing the new version of macstravic.com, with all new graphics and layout. I figure if people are going to start showing up from my radio and news appearances, I should spiff the place up a bit.

Boy, your life is boring for a little while, then everything in the world happens in a week. Lessee.
I was on the radio on Sunday! WRG 88.4 FM, the local English Language station here in Geneva had me on for about 20 minutes to discuss strange patents and my web page. It apparently went very well, though I haven't seen much extra web traffic yet. Oh well. It was a lot of fun, and the DJ said he'll have me back, maybe even to do a weekly segment with the patent of the week. I was given a tape of the appearance, and I will post it here as soon as I get the sound digitized. (Here it is!)
I am finally getting permission to hire some employees to come work for me, so I'll be all managerial and stuff pretty soon. Yeah, right. But it'll be good to work with a team of people instead of floating off in space somewhere, which gets frustrating after a year or two.
Other than that, the only news is that I have a date tonight. Keep yer fingers crossed.

Ger's in town, on her way back to Dublin from Kosovo. It seems the Irish are genetically pre-disposed towards wandering the Earth. Great seeing her again tho, and now I'll have somebody to visit in Ireland. I need excuses to travel.

Linda and Kevin Christened their baby Rory Malachi on Saturday. They held a wonderful party at their house, and aside from the occasional rain shower, everything went great. We all had a good time, and ate them out of house and home. Lucky thing the Rajpoute catered it. Congratulations to the whole Burke family. Pictures coming soon, of course. :)

Went to Chamonix on Friday night, stayed up drinking until 6 or so, then had to drive back at 9:30 to make it just in time for Linda and Kevin's christening for Rory. Next time, we'll leave a little extra time, I think. We saw Martyn and the band play at the Jekyll & Hyde, and there will, of course, be pictures.

Actually had a date on Thursday. Very nice girl, we got along great, and she got on a train the next morning, never to return. Somebody's got it out for me, I think.

My sister got married on this day. The ceremony itself took place in Kirkland Marina, in a big pavilion just on the shore of Lake Washington. I was an usher. The reception was on an old converted ferry boat that took us around the lake for a few hours. Everything about the experience was beautiful, and my sister and her new husband (I have a new brother!) are very happy. Someone pass me a tissue. *sniff*
Pictures are coming soon.

Still in the states, but in Seattle now. Got to see my old High School/College chums this time, and go out drinking. Played pool too, and remembered how much I suck at pool without properly balanced alcohol intake. Pictures to come, of course.

On vacation in the states since last week. Visiting North Carolina this week, seeing all my old friends. Got unbelieveably drunk on Saturday, and had to fly across the country with the worst hangover of my life. Several visits to the teeny airplane bathroom involved, if you know what I mean. It was worth it, though. Had a great party. The pictures that will go up eventually should attest to that.

The Fete de Geneve is all this week, and the Lake Parade was this past Saturday. Essentially a gigantic street party with 30 DJs, incredibly loud techno dance music, and thousands and thousands of people. I danced my little tushy off from around 6pm to about 4:30am. Sunday was a day of rest, with no sudden movements or bright lights. Met a few very nice girls, and might have a date coming up. We'll see.

Our friend Chukwoodi (Middle name deleted) Ezigwe left for home today. We had a going away get-togetehr for him last night. We'll all miss you Chuk. Who will accidentally insult the girls now?

Went to the Montreux Jazz Festival over the weekend. Macy Gray was playing inside, but we didn't have tickets. We just wandered around outside, listening to the free music, shopping in the booths and such. Not a bad time, really, but last year was better, methinks.

Fourth of July yesterday. They had a big celebration in Geneva, but I didn't go...it was Therese's birthday, and we all spent the night drinking far too much in Paddy's.

My ex-girlfriend Sharon's sister Andrea and her friend Michelle came to visit over the weekend. Gave me a full day's notice before showing up at the train station, too. They were lucky my apartment was in habitable shape, is all I can say. We had a great time over the weekend, as visitors are my only excuse to get out and do touristy things. I got a lot of photos, of course.

It was my 29th Birthday on Sunday. Woo! I have one more year of my twenties left. I feel old. Ah well. Nothing like a little public nudity to make you feel young again. Yes, there are pictures. Yes, they're censored. I may be crazy but I'm not insane.

Managed to go on a few dates over the weekend with a girl I met in the local night club. Turns out she had a boyfriend she didn't tell me about. I don't stand for not telling me that sort of thing, so this was officially the shortest relationship I've ever had. :)

I picked up the 7-10 split when I went bowling this Sunday. For you non-bowlers, that's the hardest thing there is to do in bowling. I've never seen it done, let alone done it, in 20 years of bowling. I got to take a pin home, signed and commemorated for the occasion. Exciting, no?

I shaved my beard off last week. Everyone says I look about 19. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I think it looks pretty good. Been a while since I've been bare-faced. Although, since shaving it, I've been sick almost every day. Hmmmmm.

Patrick and Doudu got Married over the weekend (April 29). I was there (though I was nearly late to the ceremony), and took a load of pictures, as I always do. They're all available in the pictures section.

Pictures from Frank's Stag Night and Katie's Hen night are available on frankandkatie.com. I'll eventually put them up here as well, but I want to encourage people to go try out the page I did as Frank and Katie's wedding present.

Frank and Katie got married on Saturday (April 1). I attended the wedding, which was held in Katie's home town of Togher, County Cork, Ireland. A lovely wedding, and a great weekend. I spent most of my time in the hotel (the hotel bar, to be specific), but did manage to get out into the country for a bit, to see Blarney castle. Pictures of both the wedding celebration and the visit to Blarney castle are available in the pictures section.

Frank's stag party. Amsterdam. Three days of drunken debauchery. 'nuff said. Pictures go up as soon as the editorial process is complete.

Haven't had time to update the web site in quite a while here...I've been working 12-13 hour days, non-stop programming & web design. I've got JavaScript coming out my ears, and then there's the few dozen features that need to be added to the search engine. Losing my mind.

Got my digital camera finally...the quantity and quality of photos on the site should go up dramatically. I hope.

Last Saturday was my big one year in Geneva / housewarming bash! I invited a whole slew of people, and 20 showed up. Not bad. Should have been about 6-7 more, but things worked out extremely well as it was. I bought enough wine, beer and champagne for everyone. People brought bottles anwyays, so I have plenty to drink for a while. :) I gave a little speech that went over well, and nobody called the cops (which is pretty good for Switzerland). Things ended at about 2:30...though you wouldn't know it by looking at my apartment. There's still empty bottles on every flat surface in the house. Need to start cleaning up.

Last Saturday was my first skiing trip this season. The weather was pretty bad, and the conditions weren't great, but it was well worth it. I finally got around to buying my own boots, and it made all the difference. No more pain from ill-fitting rental boots. Patrick and I nearly froze to death when we went up to the top for one last run, and got caught in a white out. The chairlift up seemed endless. By the time the end of the lift loomed up out of the fog and snow, we were both coated with ice from head to toe and could barely move. Skiing down a series of red slopes with about five foot visibility was interesting as well. We survived though, and it was quite an adventure, though not one I'd like to repeat too often.

I've started making arrangements for a one-year party at my place. Hard to believe it's been that long, but here I am. So far, every person I've invited has said they'll turn up. I don't think I've ever had this happen before. Kinda nice, really. I printed up invitations with patents on the back, each appropriate to the person invited. Took a while, but people seem to have appreciated it. I'll probably put them all up here somewhere as part of the party news / pictures.

Pictures from the Christmas Day Party are up, as well as a few new random Paddy's pictures and some from Boxing Day.

Happy New Year! Well, New Year's was interesting. Geneva apparently spent a lot of money building a huge stage and arranging a stage show involving dozens of dancers. This all boiled down to a bunch of people doing rather silly and only vaguely interesting things whilst wearing strange costumes. When the eight foot tall gold aliens came slowly walking from off-stage to the ever-so-melodious strains of humpback whale songs, I figured someone got the wrong idea of what a party is supposed to be like.
Of course, what the city had planned had little to do with whether we had fun, which we did. Frank and Katie reserved the world's smallest hotel room in the middle of the party area, and a bunch of us used it as a base of operations to go wandering the streets looking for music and anything fun. We danced the night away until about 5am. I've never seen so many people in one place at one time. The crowds were amazing. Not that this stopped a disturbingly large number of attractive young women from approaching me and complementing me on my outfit (I wore a tuxedo), and insisting on a new year's kiss. I think I'll wear a tux to every party from now on. Pictures are forthcoming.

Merry Christmas! Last Saturday I went to Kevin and Linda's Christmas Dinner, along with 14 other Paddy's residents marooned in Geneva for Christmas. I made the mashed potatoes. Ever made mashed potatoes for 15 people? Took over an hour just to do the peeling. Anyhow, they turned out all right, and everyone's contribution to the dinner was very good.
What did I get for Xmas? Well, a sweater, some dress shirts, place mats and some toy fish. Don't know what I got from my brother and sister, as the whole cross-atlantic mailing thing has delayed presents until mid-January. Which is okay, because I did the same thing with my parents' gifts.

Last Saturday was Gerome's Birthday, and we went on a Pub crawl through Ferney. We went to the local Karaoke bar, and they managed to get me up on stage to Sing. 'Hey Jude' to be specific. Apparently I wasn't that bad, as no one ran screaming from the place. Maybe I can carry a tune. Or maybe everyone was just being nice. Anyways, it was fun. :)

The pictures from Kirsty's housewarming are up in the Pictures section, under Paddy's Pub.

Kirsty had a housewarming Party last Saturday, and pretty much the whole crowd was there. Great fun was had by all, and she found herself a really nice apartment. Kirsty apparently mistook us for high society though, as she put out a fantastic spread of Chinese dishes, Satay and spring rolls. Enough food for an army, and she cooked it all herself. We were more than happy to oblige her by eating it all as fast as possible. If it had been me, I probably woulda just put out finger food and wine. Then again, I'm a) American b) Male c) Lazy, so that's three strikes against me doing that sort of thing.
Anyways, I took some good pictures, and will put them up here as soon as I get them developed. Also had a rather interesting trip to a night club after the party, which I might tell you about if you buy me a pint. :)

More new pictures are up in the Pictures section. This time provided by Kirsty, and consisting mostly of pictures taken in 1997.

Loads of new pictures are up in the Pictures section. I had to write a program to allow for the 'Next' / 'Previous' links and easy configuration, so I hope you appreciate it. If you have any pictures that you want to see up on the web, either mail me an electronic version, or give me the originals in person, and I'll be sure to put up the ones I like the best.

I got my hair cut yesterday. I've had long hair for 14 years, but not any more. I'll put up some pictures for those that are curious, as soon as I get some. Opinions are unanimously positive so far. I got contacts yesterday as well, after wearing glasses for 13 years. Did I mention I've lost 33 pounds in the last 9 months? I don't look like the same person I was when I came here. Which is good, because I'm not. That's enough personal information for the web site though, thankyouverymuch. If you want to know more, talk to me personally or send me some mail.

I've finally received my firewire card and installed it in my computer. This means I can capture stills from the digital video footage I've been taking while wandering around Switzerland/France over the last 8 months. I haven't been doing as much wandering around as I'd like, and I've often forgotten to bring my camera when I did, so the selection is a bit thin. Now that I can put these things up on the web, I should be motivated to do a bit more shooting. Plus, I'll be scanning in people's pictures from Paddy's, so there'll be a good-sized gallery here soon.

The good folks at Original Sins sent out my URL last Friday, and I'm actually receiving some traffic to this site now. Yay! Ok, I know it's not that thrilling, but it's nice to have attracted some eyeballs, finally.

Just got back from Seattle, where I spent the last two weeks. Two major events: Went to my 10 year high scool reunion, and went to my sister (K.C.)'s engagement party.
The reunion was very interesting. Got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in 10 years, including some of my very best friends from back then that I had completely lost touch with. There were also a lot of people who remembered me that I hadn't expected to. Everyone was duly impressed by my move to Europe, U.N. employment, etc. Good for one's ego. :) I only went to the informal reunion in a bar the night before the actual 'reunion', but that's the one most people go to anyways, especially when it's only a 10 year reunion. There were some professinal photographers wandering around taking pictures of everyone, so I should be able to put some pics up here pretty soon.
My sister's engagement party was cool as well. Just a gathering of their close friends and family to congratulate them and wish them well. I gave the best toast, IMHO. Pictures were taken there as well, and may find there way to this page soon. The wedding is still a year off. My father is starting to save up now. :)

I'm at a conference in Berkeley, CA, in the good old US of A this week. Nice to be back, but weird as well. Anyways, I'd have lots of cool pictures of the Eclipse last week (Aug 11, 93% in Geneva), as well as pictures from the fete de Geneve (the world's largest fireworks display), but I forgot my video camera for both events. Plus, still no firewire card for my computer. Jeez, I make a lousy webmaster. Of course, I still manage to update the patent every week, so give me some credit, eh?

This weekend was the Geneva Lake Parade, with incredibly loud techno music, floats jam packed with semi-clad women and dancing in the streets until dawn. Very Un-Swiss, but a great time was had by all. No pictures are forthcoming, as I a) forgot my camera b) don't want to harm the fragile sensibility of your average web surfer. Ok, so it's mostly a).

I was off on vacation last week, whilst my ex-girlfriend Sharon, her sister and her mother were visiting. I finally got to do touristy things, and took plenty o' nice pictures of Geneva, Montreux, Lausanne and Annese with my video camera, which will make it up onto this page as soon as I get a firewire card, and a network connection at home. Both of which probably have to wait until I get a desk. Jeez, things take a while to get done over here.

I locked myself out of my apartment last Friday. The concierge was out of the country, her temporary replacement couldn't find the key (despite having all the rest of them for the building), and the locksmith never showed up (I waited for two hours). Luckily, a friend of mine proved skillful at second-floor jobs and broke in, else I'd still be sleeping on someone's couch. Not a recommended experience.

My stuff finally arrived yesterday. Total shipping time: 5 months, 5 days. Pretty impressive. They managed to break or damage about half my furniture, but that's to be expected. Anyways, I'm insured. :) Of course, this means more dealing with the moving people, which I was really looking forward to avoiding for the next century or so. Ah, well.

My furniture was supposed to arrive today...but the truck carrying it broke down. Delivery is delayed until the 5th of July. I think I've done something to anger to shipping gods.

It was my birthday on Friday (18th), and I am now 28. Whee. Someone really needs to create more milestones for your life past 21. Turn 21 and you get to drink, then every age past that means anything (30, 40) is just a marker on the long road downhill. I personally vote that all drinks should be half price during the whole year you are 28. Then for 29, you should get to sleep in an extra hour in the morning. Give people something to look forward to.

Well, I found out my furniture arrives in 15 days. Hopefully. It's hard to believe how many times this delivery has been delayed, and I'm getting pretty damned sick of it. Anyways, once my stuff arrives, I will have a computer, and be able to work on this site a bit more than I have been. I hope. Given the way everything else works here, I'm sure there will be a three week delay in getting an internet hook-up. :)

I finally got my Beetle! woo! Ok, so it's not the silver one with black leather that I really wanted, but it's red with black leather, and it's very, very nice.

See? I'll put up real pictures of it when my computer arrives and I can capture images from my camera.

Well, I finally found an apartment. Only took two months, and after looking at what felt like very apartment in this damn city, I finally found one very close to the French border, in Grand-Saconnex. Ten minutes from work, and walking distance from the Pub. Who could ask for more? I'll put up some pictures when I get my computer (*grumble*).

For anyone I've lost touch with, I arrived in Geneva, Switzerland to start work for WIPO on this day. My job title is 'Project Support Officer: Special Projects Section: Inter-Office Information Services Department', which is pretty meaningless. I'm really the lead developer for the IPDL (Intellectual Property Digital Libraries) project. This involves writing software to put patent, trademark, and other intellectual property data up on the net, searchable and easily accessible and such. There're links on the links page if you're interested.